THOMAS BUCKNER/JOELLE LEANDRE/NICOLE MITCHELL – Flowing Stream
Leo Records CD LR 701
Thomas Buckner, voice; Joelle Leandre, bass; Nicole Mitchell, flute
Recorded December 2012, Released 2014
My first encounter with the voice of Thomas Buckner was New Music for Woodwinds and Voice, (1981on the Arch Records label, S-1785) with Gerald Oshita on Sarrusophone, Conn-o-sax and baritone and with Roscoe Mitchell leading on bass saxophone, E-flat soprano clarinet and tenor saxophone. This was perhaps Mitchell's most audaciously diverse trio and was a very different venture for him to the heady outpourings of the Art Ensemble. He had made his debut for the Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians (AACM) by recording Sound, one of its most famous recordings. This was intended to exemplify a fresh direction in which sound-as-texture and the association between sound and silence were to be explored. Thomas Buckner had founded the Arch label and became central to the performance of Mitchell's pieces.
Flowing Stream shows Buckner's baritone as flotsam and jetsam of a language appropriated from spiritual sources; magical mumblings, whispers, groans, grunts and sighs, wordless drones and mutterings that become a new language at the heart of improvisation and inventiveness. Both bass and flute apply similar techniques of fragmentation, but their voices are individually expressive as well as cohesive. Leandre's voice also contributes to the vocal dialogue, but I especially like the bowed bass on Track 6: Take 9a Bass and Voice (all tracks are named like that). It is haunting and as true avant garde should be it is fundamental artistic expression, superb in implementation, intention and spirit. This album should encourage all to look for more by these musicians and by Roscoe Mitchell too.
Reviewed by Ken Cheetham
Leo Records CD LR 701
Thomas Buckner, voice; Joelle Leandre, bass; Nicole Mitchell, flute
Recorded December 2012, Released 2014
My first encounter with the voice of Thomas Buckner was New Music for Woodwinds and Voice, (1981on the Arch Records label, S-1785) with Gerald Oshita on Sarrusophone, Conn-o-sax and baritone and with Roscoe Mitchell leading on bass saxophone, E-flat soprano clarinet and tenor saxophone. This was perhaps Mitchell's most audaciously diverse trio and was a very different venture for him to the heady outpourings of the Art Ensemble. He had made his debut for the Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians (AACM) by recording Sound, one of its most famous recordings. This was intended to exemplify a fresh direction in which sound-as-texture and the association between sound and silence were to be explored. Thomas Buckner had founded the Arch label and became central to the performance of Mitchell's pieces.
Flowing Stream shows Buckner's baritone as flotsam and jetsam of a language appropriated from spiritual sources; magical mumblings, whispers, groans, grunts and sighs, wordless drones and mutterings that become a new language at the heart of improvisation and inventiveness. Both bass and flute apply similar techniques of fragmentation, but their voices are individually expressive as well as cohesive. Leandre's voice also contributes to the vocal dialogue, but I especially like the bowed bass on Track 6: Take 9a Bass and Voice (all tracks are named like that). It is haunting and as true avant garde should be it is fundamental artistic expression, superb in implementation, intention and spirit. This album should encourage all to look for more by these musicians and by Roscoe Mitchell too.
Reviewed by Ken Cheetham